Media: TV congested with road ads

The Wheel of Misfortune has been on high rotate. Photo / Greg Bowker

The New Zealand Transport Agency and police are reviewing the advertising for the extraordinarily over-weighted road safety campaign.

But broadcasters buoyed by the campaign in the current advertising downturn need not worry.

There are no plans to reduce spending on television time.

The ads will likely remain playing over and over and over again.

When you see a happy family in a car in an ad break, there will be mayhem around the corner.

A beer will end in tears and the In-Spectre of intersections is awaiting your crash with his Wheel of Misfortune.

Don't get me wrong, these are creatively good ads with high production values. But after the 100th viewing, they go straight to mute in my home.

New Zealand Transport Agency spokesman Andy Knackstedt said there were no plans to reduce the media spend as part of the review.

Knackstedt said NZTA "continually seeks to ensure that the services provided for the road safety advertising campaign are effective and provide value for money".

The review is part of an established schedule, and clearly the agency views the campaign as a success.

There are many ways of assessing whether an advertising campaign for a commercial product is effective or not. Sales figures are the most obvious.

With social marketing campaigns like this, you can look at statistics and conduct research. You could ask a focus group and they would say "yes" they have seen the ads, and "yes" they get the road safety message. But how many people just switch off if the ad is on high rotate?

With TV networks discounting advertising space you have to wonder if the transport agency will be getting more TV time for the same money, and that will mean repeating the ads more often.

GOOD ADS

Wellington advertising agency Clemenger BBDO has held the road safety account since 2005 and its contract runs out in December.

Some folk in adland are sceptical there are any real prospects for a change after the initial pitch and short list.

Like all government departments, the police and Land Transport New Zealand have strict rules that ensure they have to tender out work.

Clemenger BBDO is a smart agency and has held the account a long time. There has been near universal acclaim for the quality of its creative work. But in the current tight market there will no doubt be competitors.

Road safety is a very valuable account and there are good reasons to have a go. The agency has licence to make risky advertising that hits people between the eyes. That means lots of awards.

TRICKLE DOWN

The founder and managing director of Black & White mobile phones - Johnathan Eele - says that Telecom XT advertising has helped uptake for its product.

Black & White is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator - piggy backing off Vodafone, but an independent company. But while the heavy hitting XT campaign has apparently been good for Telecom, Eele said it also had the effect of promoting the whole mobile category.

People saw the ads, got some information, and then had a look at what else was on the market, he said. Response to its own radio-based ad campaign had increased significantly since XT joined the market, he said.

WHAT'S ON TV

National has opted for a broadcasting future in New Zealand with Sky Television at its centre.

But does it have any interest in how this affects producers making local content and the long-term future of premium content on free-to-air TV?

Has anybody in National even thought of the impact of a policy to have no broadcasting policy? Beyond clearing away barriers to Sky's growth, this government has shown no vision of how its blind allegiance to the market and an unfettered Sky will affect the industry and consumers.

The future of the production sector and local content appears to be based on more subsidies to the networks to make up for the growing limitations of an unregulated market.

The Government slapped down sceptics of Sky's relentless growth and dominance - including TVNZ and TV3 - and killed a review of broadcasting regulations. Older folk may have a sense of deja vu.

National ignored calls for regulating Telecom, leading to years of anti-competitive practices. With convergence between media and telecommunications there are similarities, but the issue this time is not about access but about content and Sky's potential to corner the market for premium programming.

THE LONG GAME

Sky is the sleeping giant in the converged world of media and telecommunications and was not invited to a panel for a sparsely attended telecommunications conference session on convergence.

You won't find Sky's astute chief executive John Fellet complaining. There is nothing to be gained from joining panels in industry conferences.

Sky lobbies the Government directly and has successfully prevented regulation from Labour. National is clearly on Sky's side - even to the point it hurts other private sector broadcasters such as MediaWorks.

Sky has played "the long game", gradually building up its infrastructure and customer base, becoming increasingly dominant in the programme buying market.

Two speakers - Jason Paris of TVNZ and Jo Tyndall of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage - appeared to feel constrained talking about government policy at the conference.

But two lawyer panellists for a discussion of media and telecommunications convergence - Mark Toner of MGF Webb and Gordon Wong of Stephens - did raise alarm bells.

HOW IT WORKS

Wong has clients in the production industry and said advertising revenue was heavily dependent on premium content that was under pressure because of Sky's increasing dominance. As Sky gets more channels and subscribers it has more potential to buy premium programming.

As free channels lose premium content, they lose advertising revenue and the ability to fund expensive local content and bid for more local content.

There are questions about whether public broadcasters can continue to support and feature diverse local and public service content that reflect New Zealand's social and cultural identity, Wong said.

This is one aspect of the digital broadcasting sector that should have industry-specific regulation rather than relying on general competition law to restrain potential anti-competitive behaviour, he said.

NO PREMIUM

Sky Television says that it will not be following in the footsteps of its Australian counterpart Foxtel and charging a A$50 premium for four extra channels covering the Vancouver Winter Olympics next February.

Sky spokesman Tony O'Brien said Sky would be creating additional Olympics channels but as part of the standard price for the sports option. Sky would also be showing 12 hours a day on its free-to-air channel Prime.

FOR SALE

With the recent story about Russell Brown's Hard News website, Kiwiblog and Scoop embarking on a PR project with Powershop, it was interesting to see a survey about the relationship between PR and bloggers.

It seems bloggers are receptive to hear more from PR folk.

Pursuit PR conducted a study with its global network Text 100 which surveyed 449 bloggers from 21 countries, including 15 in New Zealand.

They are not identified. According to Pursuit director Stephen Knightly, 93 per cent of bloggers surveyed welcome contact by PR people and bloggers wanted distinctive content, particularly around new product developments and reviews.

Corporate news releases were out but "social media releases" would experience far greater usage in future. Around 67 per cent had contact from PR representatives in the past six months.

LION EYES

Ad agency Publicis Mojo Auckland has won a Gold Lion at Cannes for its viral video hit, Signs.

The 12-minute film won the award in the Viral Video section as part of the Cyber category at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.

The film was created as part of the Schweppes Short Film Festival.

Signs is the second highest-rated clip in the Film and Animation category on YouTube.